1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to pizza pies and similar food products and to methods for making same and, more specifically, to methods and apparatus for making cheese topping and to cheese mold assemblies.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pizza pies and similar food products traditionally have a cheese covering on top of tomato sauce or other food items and an underlying pie shell. Traditionally, the cheese covering is made by grating or otherwise working cheese into strips or other fine particles which are sprinkled onto the tomato sauce or other food items on the pie shell and which are thereupon fused together by heat.
In actual practice, this kind of application of the cheese covering is a rather onerous task which for its proper performance places far too much reliance on the skill of the operator than should realistically be required of what should really be a routine operation, considering the circumstances under which most pizza pies are made day after day and year after year during rush hours and in very competitive and impatient environments.
As a result, far too many pizza pies available to the public in innumerable parlors, stands and franchise outlets typically have cheese coverings of greatly uneven thickness and textures across the pie. Also, the grated cheese tends to fall or to the side of the pie onto the hot surface of the baking oven, thereby engendering the obnoxious odor of burnt cheese. Besides, considerable time and overhead costs are now consumed in the process of cutting and grinding cheese and in the further process of mearuing out the ground cheese for each pie. Also, the ground or grated cheese tends to dry out and pick up odors from refrigeration or other environments.
Moreover, many otherwise worthy unemployed persons find themselves unable to hold down a job in a pizza parlor because of the high skill required in the application of grated cheese for the production of an even and well-textured cheese covering.
Despite a multitude of prior-art efforts to improve the traditional pizza pie and its manufacture, the art in the specific area herein under consideration has been disappointingly stagnant.
Mechanical equipment for applying topping materials to pizza shells have brought some relief, but have retained some of the problems and introduced new ones.
For instance, the machinery disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,596 repeats and extends the prior-art practice of providing and applying the topping material in a shredded or grated condition.
In practice, whether a shredded or grated cheese topping is applied manually or mechanically, the problem of evaporative losses persists. In particular, conventional pizza toppings lose some 20 to 30 percent of their weight by evaporation during baking because of the shredded or grated condition of the cheese topping.
Also, the above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,596 does not teach a separate application of the cheese topping on top of a previously applied topping of chopped meat, ground pepperoni, ground sausage and similar topping materials in the traditional tomato sauce on the pizza shell. An application of one or more of such latter topping materials in admixture with shredded cheese is undersirable in practice, since the texture, structure and taste required in or of a pizza pie render it mandatory that the cheese topping in fact constitute the top layer of the pizza pie, to be and to remain on top of the pie, except for some tomato sauce exuding through portions of the cheese topping.
Another drawback of machinery which performs all phases of the pizza topping applying process is that it is capital intensive and thus beyond the reach of most pizza parlor operations, and that it deprives people, who heretofore applied the pizza topping manually of their jobs and livelihood.
In a somewhat related area, a so-called Western style pizza has been proposed (see Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery (Fawcett Publications, New York), Vol. 10, p. 1604). Such "Western style pizza" is prepared by splitting bread lengthwise and spreading the pieces with a tomato mixture. Cheese slices are arranged on top of these tomato-mixture-spread split bread pieces and are sprinkled with grated cheese. This combination is then put under a broiler until bubbly.
While it appears possible that such prior-art use of cheese slices may, for instance, reduce the above mentioned evaporation problem to some extent, the use of cheese slices in addition to, or instead of, grated cheese does not as such solve the problem of providing pizza pies being at least equivalent in texture, structure and composition to a most carefully prepared prior-art pizza pie having grated cheese topping applied by a highly skilled operator.
For instance, prior-art cheese slices applied to the typically round or circular pizza pie shell will leave empty spaces in the cheese topping through which tomato mix can unduly evaporate, and which make for a non-uniform cheese topping. Tailoring prior-art cheese slices to the configuration of pizza pies would put a considerable added burden on the operator or person applying the cheese topping, if a uniformity of composition and texture similar to those attainable by a most carefully applied grated cheese topping were to be realized.
Moreover, conventional slices of the type of cheese actually suitable for pizza pies trap the acid or other vapor and the heat from the tomato mix. In consequence, bubbles form in the cheese topping and often have to be punctured or cut to permit an escape of rising tomato mix vapors and to prevent contact between cheese topping and hot oven parts which would burn the cheese. Even if such bubbles burst of themselves, the erupting gases or vapors tear up the cheese topping and make for an unsightly and uneven textured pie.
This kind of problem also exists to some extent with cheese toppings made of grated cheese, since the heat of the oven causes the grated cheese layer to melt into one or more cheese patches which trap gases and vapor.
Also, conventional cheese toppings are often dislodged when the pie is put into the oven. Especially grated cheese topping tends to fall off the pie by force of inertia in response to any jerky motion of the pie during its insertion into the oven, thereby engendering the above mentioned obnoxious odor of burnt cheese and also impairing the texture of the pie topping.
This problem is also present if conventional cheese slices are used to compose the cheese topping, since such slices also can fall off the pie rather easily.
Also, neither the conventional cheese slices nor grated cheese toppings are capable of retaining the underlying tomato spread on the pie when the same is inserted into the oven in a jerky motion. Rather, tomato mix will be thrown off the pie by force of inertia, thereby contacting hot oven parts, which generates obnoxious odors.
The above mentioned drawbacks of conventional pizza pie making methods are being carried forward to newer developments in this area, as may, for instance, be seen from U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,963.
There presently is a lack of suitable methods and equipment for making improved cheese topping. As the above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,596 shows, existing equipment in the pizza pie making field takes the approach of mechanically duplicating manual methods.
Against this prior-art background, the above-referenced copending Patent Application Ser. No. 847,199 has proposed several pioneering improvements and inventions in the pizza pie and pie making arts. Of particular interest with respect to the subject application or patent are certain novel methods for making pizza pies or pizza pie cheese topping, which provide a cheese mold and dowels in the cheese mold for providing apertures in the molded and sliced cheese topping through which vapor and juices can rise from the food items and sauce on this pizza pie. A piece of cheese is cast in the mold having the mentioned apertures provided by its dowels. The cast piece of cheese having the mentioned apertures is removed from the mold and cut into slices. The dowels in the mold forming an embodiment of the invention encompassed by the above-referenced copending Patent Application Ser. No. 847,199 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,349 by said Joseph A. Caiello as sole inventor, are stationary in the particular mold. That copending patent application also discloses in FIGS. 18 to 30, 32 and 33 molds with relatively movable rods. However, those molds are only disclosed in that other patent application to provide compliance with 35 USC 112 to set forth the best mode contemplated of carrying out the invention. In particular, the latter molds with relatively movable rods do not belong to the sole invention of the above-referenced patent application Ser. No. 847,199, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,349 but rather belong to the joint invention set forth in the subject patent application and its parent application, the above referenced patent application Ser. No. 847,361. Abandoned